Best throwback Halloween movies and where to stream them
4. Paranorman
What’s Halloween without some fun stop-motion? Paranorman follows the epic adventure of a boy named Norman Babcock, who has the special gift of being able to see, and speak to, ghosts around his town. Unfortunately, this makes Norman a bit of an outcast and a loner.
But when the young boy is visited by a lumberjack-like ghost man in a bathroom stall, warning Norman about a terrible witch who is set to rise from the dead, Norman realizes he’s the only one who can stop the witch and her army of the undead. Still, he can’t do it alone and must elicit the help of some willing, and some less willing, friends.
Where to stream: Netflix
5. Monster House
While we’re on the subject of animated throwback Halloween movies, let’s not forget about Monster House, which came six years before Paranorman. When 12-year-old D.J. Walters’ crotchety and cranky neighbor Horace Nebbercracker suffers a heart attack, possibly prompted by D.J.’s and his friend Chowder’s antics, D.J. begins to blame himself for Horace’s death.
But when the boy also begins receiving calls from his neighbors abandoned house–with no one on the other end–and begins to witness the same house attack young passerby, D.J. and his friends Chowder and Jenny set out to warn the neighborhood, though nobody believes them. Suddenly, it’s up to the three friends to take the house down themselves.
Where to stream: Netflix
6. Phantom of the Megaplex
Though 17-year-old Pete Riley loves his job at local grand megaplex, his place of work also has a rather disturbing past. As the story goes, the megaplex is haunted by a “phantom,” of someone once trapped inside the town’s old movie theater, which was demolished to build the current megaplex.
While preparing for the premiere of the theater’s showing of Midnight Mayhem, Riley and his movie-going siblings begin witnessing frightful and unexplained occurrences at the megaplex and even catch glimpses of the rumored phantom. The trio and their friends get to work in a Mystery Gang fashion trying to solve the mystery of the phantom and save the film premiere.
Where to stream: Disney+